Shakur Stevenson wins Gold at the Junior World Championships

(COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.) – United States’ light bantamweight Shakur Stevenson (Newark, N.J.) became only the third United States boxer ever to win Junior World Championships gold on Sunday at the Kiev Palace of Sports in Kiev, Ukraine. The 16-year-old won five straight unanimous decision victories en route to the gold medal in the major international event. Light flyweight Daniel Gonzalez (Moreno Valley, Calif.) took silver, falling by split decision in final round action.

Stevenson advanced to the tournament finals with a 3-0 victory over Kazakhstan’s Bauyrzhan Temirkhan in Saturday’s semifinal action. The 2013 Junior World Team Open and Junior Olympic National Champion faced off with host nation boxer Ruslan Zabachuk of Ukraine in today’s light bantamweight finale. Stevenson continued his run of dominating performances in the championship bout, sweeping all three judges’ cards to take light bantamweight gold with another unanimous decision win. The victory adds to an undefeated 2013 for Stevenson, who also won gold internationally at the Victory Day Tournament in Ukraine earlier this year.

Gonzalez claimed the first spot in final round action for Team USA with a unanimous decision win over Kazahstan’s Serik Temirzhanov in their semifinal round contest in Saturday’s action. As in Stevenson’s case, Gonzalez won four consecutive unanimous decisions to advance to final round action. Yet his winning streak ended there. The 15-year-old American fell by a 2-1 split decision to Ireland’s William Donoghue in the light flyweight semifinal round contest, giving him the silver medal.

Team USA’s two medal victories brings their medal total to 17 in Junior World Championships action and the international medal tally to 66 in 2013. The Junior World Championships is the first of three World Championship tournaments that Team USA will participate in over the next month. The top junior and youth females from the United States will compete in World Championships tournament for the first time, September 20-29 in Albena, Bulgaria with the elite men boxing in the 2013 AIBA Men’s World Championships, October 11-27 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Coaches Edward Rivas (San Antonio, Texas), Willie Moses (Newark, N.J.), Keoni Adric, Sr. (Haleiwa, Hawaii), and Jacob Najar (Indio, Calif.) led the United States team in Ukraine. Ilya Friedman (Brooklyn, N.Y.) served as the squad’s Team Manager at the event with Dr. Rodney Muhammad (Colorado Springs, Colo.) working as the Team Physician.